Amy Taubin’s article The Solo Self has helped me in progressing with my solo performance ideas. A solo performance needs to be signified as a “display of virtuosity designed to elicit the spectator’s admiration and awe” (Caroll, 1979, 51). One solo performance artist, Marina Abromovic undertook one experiment, Rhythm 10 in which the artist would stab a knife between her fingers, yet whenever she cut herself she started the process again. I wanted to project feelings of bravery into my performance. In this test she tested the limits of audience and performer. I wanted this to also affect my performance.Marina proceeded to inform the audience they could do anything they wanted with her and gave them a collection of objects, including a gun and a knife to do whatever harm on her they wished. This aided the audience as a form of therapy from their own fears. Another device I would like to replicate in my performance.
Marian Abromovic really inspired me thus. In another performance she ate a raw onion ; after each bite she uttered words from a script, or have a conversation. I loved the idea of there being two images, one of a repetitive action and one of language to incite the audience’s viewpoint, and wanted to incorporate this into my work. Metaphorically, just as I visualized in my performance , the actor is peeling back different layers to reach the suffering. My puns become gradually worse until the suffering erupts. Marina further excited me in her belief that subtext has it’s own definition. There is a subtext to my puns and this is completely different to the humour that is exposed. She focused and was interested in the harmony between body and mind, something else which I would like to explore.
Some of Marina’s ideas can be explained in this video .
The work of solo practitioner Anna Deveare Smith also inspired me in that she was adamant that solo work should be created with real voices not a story. Thus, a monologue should be shaped by the culture and characteristics of reality. This is one of the adding factors illustrating a aura of unsettling emotions; another feeling I want to create.
Now to build on this through more comic theory and explore where my mind can take me for another 5 minute performance .
Works Cited
Carroll, Noel (19979) “Amy Taublin: The Solo Self, The Drama Review, 23 (1) March: 51-58.